When measuring funding to startups with female founders and CEOs, the perennial takeaway is that women remain underrepresented. Last year, for instance, just 3% of U.S. funding went to startups with solely female founders.
Women-led companies appeared similarly underrepresented in the funding tallies, capturing less than 5% of investment, per preliminary ½ûÂþÌìÌà tallies. The totals dip a bit further when narrowed to companies with both a female CEO and founder or co-founder.
Nonetheless, there are some prominent startups that fit this criteria. To illustrate, we used ½ûÂþÌìÌà to rank five of this year’s most heavily funded companies with a female CEO and founder.
Collectively, founders of the startups profiled below span sectors from biotech to transportation, and their companies have raised over $1.9 billion.
, CEO and co-founder,
Founded: 2017
Headquarters: San Diego
Funding: Has raised over $680 million to date, including a $277 million Series D in July.
Business: Focused on advanced DNA sequencing and technology for biological research. Known for its AVITI DNA sequencer and soon-to-launch AVITI24 sequencing and cyto-profiling platform. It competes with , the incumbent leader in sequencing.
Background: He was previously a venture partner at , focused on healthcare. Before that, she was senior director of scientific research at Illumina. He holds a Ph.D. from in protein biophysics.
, CEO and founder,
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: Boston
Funding: $268 million to date, including a $200 million June financing at a $1.2 billion valuation.
Business: Develops a no-code platform to automate CRM and enterprise workflows with AI-assisted co-development capabilities.
Background: Kostereva, a Ukrainian entrepreneur, initially bootstrapped the company, formerly named Bpm’online, before rebranding as Creatio five years ago.
, CEO and co-founder,
Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Richmond, California
Funding: Has raised $294 million to date, including a $170 million Series D in February. Filed for an IPO last week as a pre-revenue company.
Business: Develops therapies that target aging in order to increase healthy lifespan and treat metabolic diseases including obesity.
Background: Fortney has a Ph.D. in medical biophysics from the , followed by a postdoc at where she focused on the genetics of exceptional human longevity.
, CEO and co-founder,
Founded: 2018
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: Has raised over $350 million in known funding to date, including a $150 million Series C in July.
Business: Develops a software platform for automating compliance and risk management. Surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue in its last fiscal year.
Background: Before launching Vanta, Cacioppo was product lead for ’s Dropbox Paper offering and worked on the investment team at . She has degrees in economics and management science, and engineering from Stanford.
, CEO and founder,
Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Redwood City, California
Funding: Has raised over $400 million in grant and equity funding to date, including a $140 million Series E in January.
Business: App and software platform for tracking and managing student transportation, with a focus on elementary, middle and high school students.
Background: Before starting Zum, Narayan was a product manager at and . She graduated from the and received a degree in computer science at the .
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